The Sustainable City The environmental implications of how our cities work cannot be ignored today and make up a key tenet of the compact city debate. Just as was seen in 18th and 19th century in Europe and America the populations of city within the world's emerging economies are expanding extremely rapidly as people abandon rural living to secure better lives for themselves in the city. Today the world's urban population is more than 50% compared to 10% of 1 the population a century before. “The Interest in the compact city follows three main threads - environmental, social and 2 economic” says Hedley Smyth. The desire to promote sustainable development for cities is seen as crucial now. The environmental calmer is heard the loudest with evangelical exponent such as Richard Rogers listing a myriad of facts and figures relating to our evermore polluting cities. Looking more closely at Britain the challenges of climate change are becoming ever more apparent to policy makers who see the current urban status quo as adding to the problem and are fearful of unforeseen long term climate issues. The nation has become hooked on carbon hungry modes of transport which waste natural energy resources while demanding huge infrastructural investment. Mayer Hillman in the essay ‘In Favour of Compact City’ private car travel has by far out stripped the bus in terms of travel choices by commuters. This is within a system where the transport industry accounts for 3 a third of all energy consumption within the economy. Walking and cycling have been equally hit by the rise of the private car in part by convenience but also as the urban environment becomes more car centric and less hospitable to the pedestrian or cyclist. The carbon footprint of an urban dweller is about one third that of someone living out with of a city. This is a causal effect of transportation choices, housing and a myriad of other factors. Cars are a crucial factor in all of this with approximately one billion now on the worlds roads. This form of personalised transport puts huge strain on the infrastructure of sites and is incredibly damaging to the environment emitting vast amounts of CO2 every year. The health benefits of choosing to walk or cycle are also a factor. Moderate exercise such as these can have a large impact on the risk of heart disease or diabetes and a myriad of other conditions including the risk of cancer.
1. Rogers, 2012, Pg 11 2. Smyth, 1996, Pg 10 3. Hillman, 1996, Pg30